The experience and problems of Vietnamese refugees in the United States provides an important opportunity to examine the mental health and well-being of forced migrants placed in different types of receiving communities and social environments. The objectives of this study are to achieve a detailed understanding of: (a) those factors which have facilitated or hampered the efforts of Vietnamese refugees to cope with their new environments; (b) the nature of the stress experienced; and (c) those combinations of characteristics of individual refugees and their receiving environments which result in different types of successful or unsuccessful responses. Research among Vietnamese in different receiving communities is underway in South Alabama, West Florida, New Orleans, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Systematic interviews will be completed in each area at three different points in time in 1978, 1979 and 1980, to determine respondents' background, experience, attitudes and well-being. The study of the experience of different types of refugees in varied environemnts at different points in time would be a useful contribution to the bio-social sciences which would also provide information useful in the formation of social policy.